Plenary Speakers

If you are not a delegate of the Congress but wish to attend one of the Plenary talks only, you can purchase a $200 Plenary Ticket by clicking here and using the code “Plenary2015″.

Londa Schiebinger

Gendered Innovations in Health & Technology

Congress Theme: Women in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

Monday, June 8, 2015 at 13:30 – 15:00

Londa Schiebinger is the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science at Stanford University. She currently directs the EU/US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment project. She is a leading international expert on gender in science and technology. Over the past thirty years, Schiebinger’s work has been devoted to teasing apart three analytically distinct but interlocking pieces of the gender and science puzzle: the history of women’s participation in science; the structure of scientific institutions; and the gendering of human knowledge. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Schiebinger addressed the United Nations on the topic of “Gender, Science, and Technology” in 2011 and again in 2014. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and Guggenheim Fellowship.

Her prize-winning books include: The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science (Harvard University Press, 1989); Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science (Beacon Press, 1993; Rutgers University Press, 2004);Has Feminism Changed Science? (Harvard University Press, 1999); Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (Harvard University Press, 2004); Gendered Innovations: How Gender Analysis Contributes to Research (European Commission, 2013); with Claudia Swan, Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World (University of Pennsylvania, 2005), and with Robert N. Proctor, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (Stanford University Press, 2008). She is also author of Dual Career Couples: What Universities Need to Know (with Andrea Davies and Shannon Gilmartin). These and other of her books have been translated into numerous languages. The Gendered Innovations peer-reviewed website can be found at: genderedinnovations.stanford.edu.

Monique Frize

Engaging Women and Men for a Better Future Worldwide

Congress Theme: Women in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

Monday, June 8, 2015 at 13:30 – 15:00

Monique Frize is Distinguished Research Professor at Carleton (Retired) and Professor Emerita at University of Ottawa. Dr. Frize was a biomedical engineer for 18 years in hospitals (1971-1989) and a Professor since 1989. She held the national Chair for women in engineering (1989-1997) and the Ontario Chair on women in science and engineering (1997-2002). Dr. Frize was co-founder of INWES (2002) and the INWES Education and Research Institute (2007). She published over 200 papers in journals and conference proceedings on artificial intelligence in medicine, infrared imaging, ethics, and on women in science and engineering. She is a Fellow of IEEE (2012), Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (1992) and of Engineers Canada (2010), Officer of the Order of Canada (1993) and recipient of the 2010 Gold Medal from Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. She received five honourary doctorates in Canadian universities since 1992. She published The Bold and the Brave: A history of women in science and engineering with the University of Ottawa Press (2009); Laura Bassi and Science in 18th Century Europe: The extraordinary life and role of Italy’s pioneering female professor with Springer (2013); Ethics for Biomedical Engineers (2011) and Health Care Engineering I & II (2013) with Morgan & Claypool.

Jeff Immelt

Next Generation Health: An Industry Perspective

Congress Theme: Next Generation Medicine

Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 13:30 – 15:00

Mr. Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman and CEO, has held several global leadership positions since coming to GE in 1982, including roles in GE’s Plastics, Appliances, and Healthcare businesses. In 1989 he became an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital Board in 1997.

Mr. Immelt has been named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s, and since he began serving as chief executive officer, GE has been named “America’s Most Admired Company” in a poll conducted by Fortune magazine and one of “The World’s Most Respected Companies” in polls by Barron’s and the Financial Times.

Mr. Immelt was the chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He is a member of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Mr. Immelt earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1982. He and his wife have one daughter.

Mary Gospodarowicz

Cancer: The Global Health Challenge

Congress Theme: Global Health Challenges

Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 08:00 – 10:00

Mary Gospodarowicz is Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, the Medical Director of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and the Regional Vice President of Cancer Care Ontario. She is past Chair of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. She trained in internal medicine, radiation oncology, and medical oncology and her practice involves lymphomas and genitourinary cancers. Her research focused on clinical trials of radiotherapy, image-guided radiotherapy, and survivorship. Her current interests include global cancer control, access to radiotherapy, and quality cancer care. She recently completed her term as President of UICC – Union for International Cancer Control. She participates in the Global Task Force on Cancer Care and Control of Harvard Global Equity Initiative and the UICC’s Global Task Force on Radiotherapy for Cancer Control.Professor Gospodarowicz is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in the United Kingdom, and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Radiologists in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. She is an honorary member of the European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO), the Scientific Association of Swiss Radiation Oncology, and the German Society for Radio-oncology (DEGRO). She is a recipient of numerous awards including the Gordon Richards Lectureship from the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncologists, the May Cohen Award for Women Mentors from the Canadian Medical Association, the Janeway Medal from the American Radium Society, and the Gold Medal from the American Society of Radiation Oncology.

Gordon McBean, CM, O.Ont, PhD, FRSC

The Changing Urban Environment and Health in a Future Earth

Congress Theme: Urban Health and Future Earth

Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 08:00 – 10:00

Professor Gordon McBean, CM, OOnt, PhD, FRSC is President of the International Council for Science. He is a Professor at Western University, London, Canada and Director of Policy Studies of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and Co-Director for Research and External Relations, Centre for Environment and Sustainability. He is President of Global Change START International, an organization supporting regional networks and capacity enhancement in Africa and Asia, Chair, Regional Action on Climate Change and Knowledge Action Networks and newly appointed member of the STS Forum Council. He was Chair of the World Climate Research Programme (1988-94) and Chair of the Scoping Group, Planning Committee and then Science Committee for the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Program. He is Principal Investigator of the Coastal Cities at Risk: Building Adaptive Capacity for Managing Climate Change in Coastal Megacities which takes an integrated natural, socio-economic and engineering and health sciences approach for Vancouver, Bangkok, Manila and Lagos. He has been appointed a Member of theOrder of Canada (2008) for“contributions to the advancement of climate and atmospheric sciences in Canada and for leadership in national and international scientific organizations” and the Order of Ontario (2010) as “a leading scientist and authority on climate change and natural disasters”.He is a Fellow of the: Royal Society of Canada; Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and American Meteorological Society. As a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he shared in the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. From 1994 to 2000, he was the Assistant Deputy Minister in Environment Canada responsible for climate, weather and air quality sciences and services and advising the government on related issues. During his time in government, he was Canadian Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organization and elected a member of its Executive Council. Before that he was Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD in Physics and Oceanography from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, MACP, FACMI

Academic Biomedical Informatics: Synergies and Challenges at the Interface with Industry

Congress Theme: Evidence and Health Informatics

Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 13:30 – 15:00

Edward H. Shortliffe is Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Senior Advisor for Health Solutions at Arizona State University. He also holds academic positions as an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy and Research (Health Informatics) at Weill Cornell Medical College, and as a Scholar in Residence at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City. Previously he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Medical Informatics Association (2009-2012). He has also held academic appointments at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston (2009-2011), the University of Arizona (2007-2009), Columbia University (2000-2007), and Stanford University (1979-2000). He has spearheaded the formation and evolution of graduate degree programs in biomedical informatics at Stanford, Columbia, and Arizona State University. Both a PhD computer scientist and a physician who has practiced internal medicine, Dr. Shortliffe is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences). He has also been elected to fellowship in the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. A Master of the American College of Physicians, he received the ACM’s Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1976 and ACMI’s Morris F. Collen Award in 2006. Currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and a well-known textbook on Biomedical Informatics (now in its fourth edition), Dr. Shortliffe has authored over 350 articles and books in the fields of biomedical computing and artificial intelligence.

Vimla L. Patel, PhD, DSc, FRSC

Cognitive Challenges for Safe Human Computer Interaction

Congress Theme: Evidence and Health Informatics

Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 13:30 – 15:00

Professor Vimla Patel is a Senior Research Scientist and Director of Center for Cognitive Studies in Medicine and Public Health at the New York Academy of Medicine, and adjunct professorial appointments at Columbia and Arizona State Universities, and Weill Cornell Medical Center. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Otago University in New Zealand and a MA and Ph.D. (1981) in Educational Psychology (Medical Cognition) from McGill University in Montreal. As Professor of Medicine and the director of Cognitive Science Center at McGill, her early research focused on scientific foundations for medical and health education, particularly in cognitive foundations of medical decision-making. She expanded her research activities with an informatics focus at Columbia (2000-7) and University of Texas-Houston, (2009-11) and also at Arizona State University (2007-9) where she was professor, and Vice Chair of Biomedical Informatics in the Ira Fulton School of Engineering. An elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the New York Academy of Medicine, she was a recipient of the annual Swedish “Woman of Science” award in 1999. She received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Victoria in Canada. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and sits on the editorial boards of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Advances in Health Science Education. With awards from NIH,Science Foundation (AZ), AHRQ, and private Foundations, Prof. Patel has forged a closer tie between cognitive psychological principles, human computer interaction and patient safety in complex healthcare workplace.